The Paradise High School varsity girls basketball team had to overcome a halftime deficit on Wednesday night to beat University Prep in Redding, 55-49, in a non-league game.

The win pushes Coach Elwood Hansen's team to 11-8 on the year and was a bounce back outing for the Bobcats who lost on Friday night in Las Plumas.

Hansen said the team started slowly and trailed 25-19 at the intermission, but was on fire in the third quarter.

"We came out and had a very good third quarter," Hansen said in an e-mail to The Post on Thursday. "And we scored 20 points and took the lead for the first time."

Hansen said the big scoring quarter gave the Bobcats a nine-point lead at one stage, but U-Prep (12-7) rallied to within two. Paradise also overcame the loss of Cassidy Burnett with four minutes to go. The Eastern Athletic League's leading scorer (13.3 points per game) fouled out with four minutes to go but scored a team-high 18 points before leaving.

But Coach Hansen said Burnett's backcourt mate, Mary Hansen and sophomore starters Mariah Mundt and Emilee Heinke picked up the load. Hansen would drain three of four free throws in the quarter while Mundt and Heinke would each score four points in a 16-point Bobcat quarter.

Coach Hansen said the Bobcats handled the U-Prep press throughout the game, but especially in the fourth quarter.

"It was a good win for us," he said. "Mary only had four points but had six rebounds and really did a good job running the team under some real good pressure."

Mundt recorded her second double-double of the year scoring 11 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. The sophomore also threw in a team-high four steals to round out the night. Her fellow sophomore Heinke had 10 points and nine rebounds to help the cause.

Hansen said coming in the Bobcats wanted to hold U-Prep star guard Kelsie Jurin under 15 points and were mostly successful in doing that as they held her to 15 points. Jurin came in averaging 17.6 points per game.

However, Panther center Shayla Anderson scored 21 on the night.

The Bobcats will now get ready to host EAL-leading Pleasant Valley on Friday night at Paradise High.

The Vikings, who are 2-0 in league and 13-6 overall, beat Las Plumas 62-41 at Las Plumas on Wednesday night. Friday's meeting will be the first between the two schools this year and the first time the Bobcats have faced PV varsity girls under the stewardship of Tony Carlise who was a longtime JV coach.

The Vikings are led on the floor by seniors McKenna Barker (9.2 ppg) and Izzy Bonacorsi (7.8 ppg.)